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Monday, December 06, 2010

Atheist evangelism

It finally happen happened. A young lady I know asked me how I could be so happy and fulfilled as an atheist. She’s a public Christian. By public I mean that given a chance she will tell you about the joy of knowing Jesus. That’s how she knew I am an atheist.

I helped her write her university graduation speech. She does not write well and she was having trouble putting her thoughts into words. I’m not sure I did much for her beside help her give voice to her thoughts. It was the least I could do. She’s a good a kid.

For reasons that are not really her fault, this university standout missed a deadline for turning in her speech. She’s had qualified to speak based on her academic accomplishments but was thwarted by a hostile school bureaucracy. In her frustration she said that the world always acted against her. I asked a few questions to clarify and she told me “the world” was God. She felt that the God that she worshiped was out to cause her pain because of her sinful ways.

We talked for a few minutes about how to deal with disappointment. It was at this point that she asked about atheism. It was my big chance. I could finally help bring somebody over to my team. I passed though. I simply said that atheism was an assertion that there is no God, but that atheism did not offer any belief system to replace that of Christianity. She had trouble understanding since to her atheism needed to replace Christianity in order for it to make sense. I explained that atheism is the opposite of theism not the opposite of Christianity. To replace Christianity one needs philosophy. That’s right, the entire extent of my evangelism was to point her toward philosophy. I my case, I pointed her toward existentialism. I’m such a rebel.